H1B Change of Status HELP!!!

ellieswellies

Hello,

I am an Irish citizen travelling to the US on the ESTA/90 day tourist visa and I just got a job offer here in the US. I'm a veterinarian, so I am applying for my H1B. My question is regarding the change of status situation: Since I am on the visa waiver program, I can't change status, so when I am filling out part 4 of my I-129 form, what do I do?!
Cheers,
Ellie.

lonestargirl

Come home and get the visa issued by the embassy in Dublin, the whole process will take a few weeks at least.

ellieswellies

that's what I was thinking I had to do. On my I-129 form do I select consulate as the facility I want notified if my petition is approved? I assume consulate means embassy....
plus they are doing the premium processing, hopefully that will speed things up a bit!!

Darren1o1

ellieswellies wrote: »

that's what I was thinking I had to do. On my I-129 form do I select consulate as the facility I want notified if my petition is approved? I assume consulate means embassy....
plus they are doing the premium processing, hopefully that will speed things up a bit!!

H1b lottery usually happens in April, and by now I would imagine the cap would be met. It is likely you will not be able to get your H1b til april and then start this time next year.

lonestargirl

Darren1o1 wrote: »

H1b lottery usually happens in April, and by now I would imagine the cap would be met. It is likely you will not be able to get your H1b til april and then start this time next year.

H1B is not a lottery, it's first come first served for visa numbers. In the early 2000's all the numbers would be used up within a few weeks of it opening in April but that has changed, for FY2011 (the current year) there are 65,000 available and at last bulletin date (9/24/2010) there had only been 39,600 petitions filed.

Darren1o1

Thats surprising. My first year of applying I did not get it, due to lottery. Then I got it last year (due to lack of applicants). Isn't the an apply by date, as I recall?

lonestargirl

There are 2 issues:
1) The general economy, there are more unemployed US citizens and less employers willing to spend the money to sponsor people
2) There has been a big clampdown on a number of companies who were sponsoring Indians (usually in engineering and IT) and then farming them out as contractors - which is not allowed under H1B.

Yes, they are assigned by date applied for but at this rate I can't see them running out of visa numbers before the end of the year. In fact my employer filed a petition last week (for an imaging physics engineer) as we get copies of all petitions filed. It is closed to applicants Jan-April and then those who apply from April on cannot start until Oct 1st, the OP will be able to have her employer file and then move as soon as the visa is granted provided they do so before the end of Dec.

Darren1o1

lonestargirl wrote: »

There are 2 issues:
1) The general economy, there are more unemployed US citizens and less employers willing to spend the money to sponsor people
2) There has been a big clampdown on a number of companies who were sponsoring Indians (usually in engineering and IT) and then farming them out as contractors - which is not allowed under H1B.

Yes, they are assigned by date applied for but at this rate I can't see them running out of visa numbers before the end of the year. In fact my employer filed a petition last week (for an imaging physics engineer) as we get copies of all petitions filed.

There was also a caveat in the bailouts, that companies which tool it, could not take H1b on.

lonestargirl

Makes sense, the OP seems to be a vet going to work in a small company so that will hardly apply to her. I work in a hospital with 20,000 employees, we have a whole floor for our visa office!